Book Review – THE A-Zs OF WORLD BUILDING by Rebekah Loper #amwriting #Fantasy

Just Released:

THE A-Zs of Worldbuilding by Rebekah Loper

About the book

Worldbuilding is the ultimate act of creation for speculative fiction writers, but how exactly do you worldbuild? You ask ‘what if’ and use each answer as a springboard to more questions and answers about your fictional world.In The A-Zs of Worldbuilding, that ‘what if’ process is broken down into 26 themed chapters, covering topics ranging from architecture to zoology. Each chapter includes a corresponding set of guided exercises to help you find the ‘what if’ questions relevant to your story’s world.Fair warning, though: worldbuilding is addictive. Once you get started, you might never put your pen down again.

Why Spec Fic authors should use this book

As an author of speculative fiction, one of my passions is world building. For any fantasy or SF story to truly grab the reader and hold them, the world in which the story takes place must be logical (sometimes it might be alien logic, not ours, but there should be some obvious coherence), inventive, and above all, consistent.
If you follow my blog regularly you will have seen previous posts about this topic, such as this one, where I struggled to read an otherwise gripping story, because these factors were not adhered to.
For this reason, when Rebekah offered this book for review, I jumped at the opportunity, and I’m so pleased I did.
Here is my review.

World building is an essential skill for every writer of speculative fiction, and this A-Z is a great place to start.
Originally an exercise for a blog challenge, the author has developed this into a really useful workbook to guide, inform and stimulate writers as they settle down to create their own unique worlds. Consistency, believability, and logic are essential when designing a world, and there are many aspects to consider, from moons and gravity, to geography and weather, through societies, economics, fashion, food, flora and fauna, to name but a few, and this excellent work book, while by no means exhaustive, covers a huge range of topics every writer should know about their world, even if the information never comes to the fore of their narrative.
I hope many writers will use this excellent resource to help guide their creativity. On a personal level, as an author who has written several books in an established world created many years ago, I still found a few points in this book that brought new perspectives and inspired some new ideas.
Highly recommended for all spec fic authors.

About the Author

Rebekah Loper loves to create worlds – whether they are magical and fictional, or a productive farm in her suburban backyard where she makes futile attempts to curse Bermuda grass from all existence.

Rebekah lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with her husband, dog, formerly feral cat, a flock of chickens, and an extensive tea collection. She blogs at rebekahloper.com, and is also a contributing blogger at Fantasy-Faction.com and The Rabid Rainbow Ferret Society (fictionalferrets.wordpress.com).